(In response to ‘Mayor discusses Year In Review open houses,’ December 13)

The reasoning of Haldimand council for doing nothing towards resolving the issues of Douglas Creek Estates, smoke shacks and Industrial Wind Turbines is the same and hollow.

Regarding smoke shacks, for example, the ingredients in the cigarettes are suspect, the cigarettes are sold to children, and our laws are being flagrantly ignored.

Our mayor admits that he has the capacity to enforce the bylaw that does not allow these smoke shacks, but reasons that his moral conscience will not allow him to “send staff into a situation that isn’t going to bring about a solution, but is only going to stir the pot.”

It appears that our mayor is saying that if a situation occurs in Haldimand County that requires an enacted bylaw be enforced to maintain the integrity of the County, but the person(s) breaking the bylaw could cause trouble for the person attempting to enforce the bylaw, then he feels that morally he should do nothing.

In this case that means allowing kids to continue to have access to cigarettes and our laws to become meaningless; hardly a decision of good conscience!

If needed, couldn’t our police force, the OPP, step in and protect county personnel? If, perhaps, our council does not feel confident in relying on this solution, then that becomes another issue that demands action.

Few of us would take on the daunting obligation of governing Haldimand County, complete with its very demanding and difficult issues, but Mr. Hewitt and council wanted this opportunity and now they need to take action to resolve these issues.

A mayor who is afraid to allow a bylaw to be enforced and says so publicly proves himself to be weak and is a detrimental representative of his constituents. Enough with the excuses; please stand up!